Scratched Horse Refund Rules

What happens to your bet when a horse is scratched

A scratching is the racing term for a horse being withdrawn from a race after betting has opened. The usual reasons:

• injury or illness found on race day
• a change in track conditions
• a decision by the trainer or the stewards

The good news for bettors is that pari-mutuel (tote) systems across Asia treat the scratched horse as if it never existed: your stake comes back rather than turning into a losing bet.

The basic principle is the same almost everywhere:

• JRA (Japan): all combinations including the scratched horse are refunded¹
• HKJC (Hong Kong): bets involving a withdrawal in a single race pool are refunded²
• NAR local tracks such as Nagoya (Japan): tickets on the scratched number and every combination containing it are returned³

The complications come at the edges. In Japan, horses often run under bracket numbers (waku), where two or three horses share one number on the ticket. If horses are scratched from a bracket, the refund depends on how many horses remain in it:

Timing can matter too. At racing jurisdictions that follow the old colonial rulebook, such as Mauritius, a withdrawal declared before the first trumpet (the signal that horses are heading to the start) cancels and refunds all bets on the horses in that race, and betting starts again from scratch. A withdrawal declared after the first trumpet only triggers a refund of bets on the withdrawn horse, plus a percentage deduction on winning amounts per a scale the organizer announces⁴.

The same logic applies beyond horse racing. In Japanese boat racing (kyotei), a boat that jumps the start (an F) or misses the start (an L) is scratched from the race, and all bets on that boat are refunded⁵.

Scratching refunds in single race pools

Single race pools are the straightforward case. Whatever the bet type, if your selection is scratched, the money comes back.

At the HKJC, the English rulebook states it plainly: "in the event of withdrawals in a single race pool, bets involving the withdrawal will be refunded"⁶. The Chinese-language rulebook adds the key detail for combination bets: if you hold a Quinella or Trifecta that includes the scratched horse along with others, the whole ticket is refunded, because the combination itself is dead⁷. The same rule covers merged pools⁸.

At JRA, the refund covers every combination containing the scratched horse, and the refund is paid at the standard payout windows once the race result is confirmed¹. Local Japanese tracks follow the same pattern:

• Kasamatsu: if a horse is scratched after sales begin, all money bet on that horse is refunded after the race is confirmed⁹
• Nagoya: the refund covers win, place, quinella, exacta, wide, trifecta and trio bets on the scratched number and all its combinations, and for cashless, phone and internet bettors the money is added promptly back to the purchase limit³

One Japanese quirk to know: for wide (bracket trio) bets, no refund is carried out when four or fewer horses run, so a scratching that shrinks the field to that size can leave your ticket live rather than refunded¹.

Substitutes and deductions in multiple bets

Multi-leg bets, where your selection in one race carries forward to later races, are where scratchings get interesting. The general HKJC rule is that in multiple bets, only the portion relating to the scratched horse is refunded, and the rest of the bet stands². But some bet types go further and substitute a replacement horse.

The clearest example is the HKJC Double Trio (孖T) and Triple Trio (三T). If a horse is scratched in one or more legs, your stake is not refunded. Instead, each scratched horse is replaced by the favorite, with the second or third favorite substituted in specified combination cases⁷. So if you took a Triple Trio with horse 4 in the second leg and horse 4 is scratched, the favorite in that race takes its place, and your ticket keeps running. This is why a scratched horse in a Triple Trio leg sometimes turns into an unexpected winner: everyone's tickets converge on the favorite, and if it wins, the dividend collapses.

Other multi-race pools have their own thresholds. The Six Up (六環彩) bet is refunded only if all legs have no horse finishing; if any leg loses all its finishers, the net pool is paid 100 percent on the remaining legs' first or second placed horses¹⁰. And pools simply close when the fields get too small:

At JRA, the treatment of the WIN5 five-race jackpot is more generous to bettors: if a horse is scratched or excluded from a WIN5 target race, all combinations containing that horse are refunded regardless of what happens in the other target races¹¹. That is a full refund of the ticket, not a substitute.

Mauritius deduction rules for withdrawn horses: capped at 50%

In Mauritius, the Gambling Regulatory Authority handles late withdrawals differently from the East Asian operators. The distinction turns on the first trumpet, the bugle call that sends horses to the start.

• Withdrawal declared before the first trumpet: all bets on the horses in that race are canceled and refunded, and betting reopens with new receipts marked "special"⁴
• Withdrawal declared after the first trumpet: bets on the withdrawn horse are refunded, but a percentage deduction is applied to winning amounts on a scale established and announced by the organizer⁴
• Coupled bets (one entry covering two horses): the refund covers the bet amount placed on the withdrawn horse while the remaining proportion stays as a valid bet⁴

The deduction scale exists because a late withdrawal changes the race's complexion after most of the money is already in the pool, and the deduction compensates the pool. The important protection for bettors is that the total deduction is capped at 50 percent of the winning amount, so however many horses come out late, more than half of any winning payout always survives.

Japan has its own version of pool protection through payout rates. JRA bet types carry a fixed payout rate: 70 percent on some bet types (JPY 70 refunded per JPY 100 bet) and 80 percent on others (JPY 80 per JPY 100), and these rates apply to all purchasers of winning tickets under the Horse Racing Law¹. Refunded tickets, such as those on scratched horses, are excluded from total sales when dividends are calculated, so the refunded money does not distort the pool¹².

When a whole pool is canceled and refunded

Sometimes it is not one horse but the entire pool that comes back to you. The HKJC rulebook lists the situations: if a race meeting is postponed, canceled or declared void, a refund is made for each accepted bet¹³. The English rules say the same for every bet received by the operator, including outbound commingled bets on overseas races¹⁴.

In Japan, the screens you see online make this explicit. KEIRIN.JP and the ticket-check screens display 【全返還】, meaning "full refund", when the entire purchase amount is returned because a race was not held or did not establish a result¹⁵. Auto Race works the same way: if a race is not constituted (signaled by a red flag), all tickets for that race are refunded in full¹⁷.

A race can also be declared void after it has been run. At Kanazawa and other local tracks, if the race is declared not established, purchased betting tickets are refunded¹⁸. The HKJC terminates a bet type, selection or pool outright in some situations, and all valid bets in the terminated pool are refunded in full, with the operator having no further liability beyond the refund¹³.

Betting after a scratching is announced

Once a scratching becomes official, the betting windows and apps close that horse off. The HKJC rule is categorical: once a scratching is announced, no bet of any type involving the scratched horse will be accepted, including multi-leg combinations up to the next leg².

In Japan, the approach is slightly different in effect:

• Kanazawa: the betting method does not change if a horse is scratched after sales begin, and no same-bracket re-draw is performed; the scratched horse's numbers simply stop being sold and existing tickets are refunded¹⁸
• JRA A-PAT (telephone and online): a completed bet cannot be canceled or changed for any reason, including a scratching or a jockey change, so what you have is what you hold¹⁹. The same system's guidance confirms that bets on a canceled race are fully refunded, and for win, place, wide, quinella exacta, trio, tierce and WIN5, combinations including the canceled horse are refunded²⁰

Singapore Pools states the general principle for its horse racing game: refunds are not available except where the rules provide for them, and bets on scratched horses are one of the provided cases²¹.

Fixed-odds products have their own versions. In the HKJC Jockey Challenge, if a designated jockey does not ride in any designated ride, the treatment depends on the odds at announcement: at 5.0 or below, all Jockey Challenge bets for that race day are refunded; above 5.0, only bets on that jockey are refunded and the rest stand²². A jockey whose mount is declared a non-runner is treated as not having ridden it, but the jockey's bets remain valid, and if the jockey rides at least one designated ride, all their bets stand even if they are later suspended or replaced²³.

Place bets when the field shrinks

Place bets are the most sensitive to field size, because how many places pay depends on how many horses run.

In Japan, the rule is simple: a Place bet pays if your horse finishes in the top three, or in the top two if seven horses or less run, and the bet is available when there are five or more horses in a race²⁴. So if scratchings drop a field from ten to seven, your Place bet still stands but now only pays for a top-two finish.

At HKJC, the mechanics are pool-based:

The net pool is divided into two or three parts accordingly, each part divided by the units bet on the relevant horses⁸. The pools then close if the field gets too small: a Place pool with three dividends closes and refunds all bets if fewer than four starters remain, and a two-dividend Place pool closes below three starters⁶. The Chinese rulebook sets slightly different thresholds for commingled pools, terminating three-dividend Place betting below five runners and two-dividend betting below four⁷.

Bookmakers in jurisdictions with fixed-odds betting follow the starter count: they pay on three placed horses when there are eight or more starters and on two placed horses when there are four to fewer than eight²⁵. In Korean motorboat racing, the parallel rule is that certain combination bets are refunded outright when three or fewer players start²⁶.

When nobody backed the winner

A rarer situation: the race is run, a result is declared, and not a single bettor holds the winning combination. Tote systems have fallbacks.

For HKJC Win pools, the dividend falls back to the second placed horse, then the third placed horse, and only if neither was backed are all bets refunded⁷. The commingled version says the same: if no bet is laid on the winning combination in Win betting, all bets are refunded². Quinella works similarly, falling back to first and third, then second and third, then refunding everyone⁷. In Place betting, the placed horses that were backed share the net pool, and if no placed horse was backed at all, all bets are refunded².

JRA handles the empty pool differently. If nobody hits the winning combination in a pool, a special refund (toku-barai) calculated by a prescribed formula is paid to everyone who bet that betting type²⁷. So your losing ticket still returns something, just not the full stake.

Void races, delayed races and insufficient finishers

A race can fail after betting opens, and the rules cover each way it can fail.

A race is declared void or "not established" in Japan if serious disruption occurs, such as a disaster or an obstruction, or if the race is run on a course other than the designated one; tickets are refunded²⁸. Nagoya lists the same two triggers³. For single race pools at HKJC, all bets are refunded in full if a race is declared void; for multi-race pools, bets are refunded only if all legs are void, otherwise they stand on the races actually run⁷.

Insufficient finishers have their own rules:

All of the above are HKJC rules⁸.

For overseas races, if a race or its official result is delayed for any reason, the operator may cancel betting on the race and refund all bets in full². And if an overseas race is declared void, all bets are refunded in full even if the overseas stewards order a rerun; the rerun is treated as a separate race whose result does not affect the original dividends²⁹.

On-course practicalities follow the same logic. At Sonoda and Himeji, reserved seat fees are refunded if a meeting is abandoned mid-way, but only if the day's races have not progressed past set points, such as the 5th race not being finished by the time of the 10th³⁰. In boat racing, tickets on a boat that does not start are refunded in full, and you simply keep your ticket and claim at the window³¹.

Overseas commingled pools: which rules apply

When you bet an overseas race through a commingled pool, your money joins the host operator's pool, so a fair question is whose rules apply. The HKJC answer is that commingled pools are governed by its own rules except as amended in Chapter 6, and Chapters 3, 4 and 5 of the standard rules do not apply to commingled pools at all².

By betting into a commingled pool, you agree to be bound by the foreign racing rules applicable to the race and by the foreign operator's methods for calculating payouts². But the local rules prevail on a defined list of matters:

• void races
• acceptance or rejection of bets
• maximum bet and maximum dividend
• validity decisions
• timing of dividend declaration
• whether to follow the foreign operator's revised dividends²

If the foreign operator cancels the overseas pool with refunds, the HKJC may terminate the affected commingled bet type and refund all such bets². On a technical failure of the foreign operator's facilities, network or systems, the operator may terminate the affected bet type and either refund all bets or hold the accepted bets as an independent pool². The operator may also terminate any commingled pool bet type at any time without giving a reason, refunding bets or running them as an independent pool².

Currency is handled by the operator: it may use an exchange rate agreed with the foreign operator or any rate it sets for a race, and by betting you accept that rate². For races with bracketed numbers overseas, if one or more but not all horses in a bracket are withdrawn, all bets remain valid and you are treated as having selected the remaining bracketed runners²⁹.

Collecting your refund

Getting the money back is usually the easy part, but there are deadlines.

Singapore Pools states the forfeiture rule directly: any refund not claimed within the claim period is forfeited³². Check the claim period printed with your bet or on the operator's site, because it can be shorter than the Japanese and Hong Kong 60-day standards.

How you collect depends on how you bet:

• Cash tickets are refunded at payout windows, at JRA in exchange for the physical ticket¹
• Cashless, phone and internet bets at Nagoya are added promptly back to your purchase limit rather than paid out at a window³
• Japanese betting apps show a scratched number in red on the ticket-check screen, with the refund appearing in the refund column, and 【全返還】 marks a full refund¹⁶

Keep your paper ticket until results are final: in boat racing, the standard advice for a non-starting boat is to keep the ticket and present it for a full refund³¹.

For more on how the pools themselves work, see our guide to horse racing bet types and to multi-race bets, and for the deadlines on winning tickets, see claiming racing dividends.